Overview
- BBC Studios announced on Oct. 17 that Chmerkovskiy will be suspended for one week and will not appear on the Oct. 20 Dedication Night episode.
- The action followed a TikTok Story Chmerkovskiy posted after the Oct. 13 Super Bowl Night episode that said, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” a line widely read as invoking Will Smith’s 2022 Oscars slap.
- Carrie Ann Inaba publicly shared a screenshot of the deleted post and questioned it, and Chmerkovskiy issued public apologies and said he had reached out to Inaba directly to apologize.
- Producers reassigned former pro Alan Bersten to dance with Jenna Dewan for Dedication Night so Dewan can still compete and the live broadcast can proceed as scheduled on Oct. 20.
- The suspension, reported as the first known temporary benching of a DWTS pro, raises questions about judge–pro relationships, cast conduct on social media, and how producers enforce standards to prevent on-air disruptions.